apple orchard

How to plant an apple orchard in your backyard

Another nine inches of fluffy snow fell on Cape Cod yesterday, the most
recent of many big winter storms this year. Today is clear, with deep blue
skies and the new snow is so brilliant that it's blinding to look at.
Most of my yard is buried under the soft white blanket, but sticking up
triumphantly are the dozen skinny trunks of my two year old apple
trees.

I love apples, my family loves apples and I've got a whole bunch of
friends
who like them too. So the notion of using the northwest corner of my
property to put in a few apple trees wasn't too hard to come to.
Especially since I like gardening anyway and the climate here is amenable to growing our favorite
fruit. As soon as I started looking into apple trees, I realized that by
using hybrid dwarf trees I could raise the project to a whole new level, I could
become an orchardist!

That was almost two years ago. This year, once the snow finally melts,
I'm going to reap my first real harvest. If that idea appeals to you, read
on because creating a backyard apple orchard isn't nearly as difficult or
expensive, or time consuming as you might think. It doesn't even take up that
much room.

Introduction

There are an infinite number of ways to do most anything, and choosing from all the
possibilities is a big part of living well. I'm going to show you
one very specific method for planning and planting a small apple orchard that I
know works. Please feel
free to research further and experiment with the many variations that might work
equally well, or perhaps even better. If you find something really great
that you think I've missed drop me a line, I'm always up for learning.

Here are some characteristics of the backyard apple orchard

It fits in an amazingly small space.

It will work in most soil types.

The trees will produce in a wide range of climatic conditions

After the initial planting, it requires minimal care

The varieties are selected to provide fruit continuously over eight months
of the year

Planning your orchard

Before going any further, you'll need the following information:

A scaled diagram of your yard, accurately showing the space you plan to
put your orchard in. Note on your drawing, the location of existing
trees and other structures that will cast shade on the orchard. Other
concerns are low hanging wires above, sewer lines, sidewalks or driveways
below, and scenic views that might be blocked by the mature trees. Take your time on this part, measure carefully and
make it as accurate as possible. Try to picture the space filled with
happy trees.

Determine where the nearest source of water for irrigating the orchard is
and mark it on your drawing.

Find out what climate zone you live it. If you live in the U.S. you
can find out directly using the USDAHardiness Zone Map1.
Outside the U.S. you should be able to interpolate your climate zone based
on the range of temperatures in your area by finding a similar area on the
USDA map.

Take a shovel and dig a hole two feet deep in the area you intend to
plant. Take a ball of the soil from the bottom of the hole and squeeze
it tightly in your hand. Now pinch the ball gently between your
fingers and note how it
crumbles. Does it all fall apart completely into grains, like sand, or
just deform like a lump of clay?

Since this is a backyard orchard, we're going to emphasize fitting as many
trees as possible into the available space. The best way to do
this is to use the highly developed compact and dwarf varieties now
available. These trees only grow to a height of eight to ten feet, but
they bear full sized fruit and plenty of it. Take your scaled sketch of
the orchard area and use a drawing compass to lay out the individual
trees. Use a ten foot diameter circle and leave a foot or so between the
circles so you'll have room to walk around when you are tending the trees.
You'll probably be surprised at how many trees you can fit into that unused area
of your back yard, or the side lawn that no one ever uses anyway.

The trees will grow about as tall as they are wide, so consider the layout vertically as well as
horizontally. Be sure that they won't encroach on
any electrical wires. Beneath the ground the roots will spread over an
area about one third larger than the branches above ground. If your home
has a septic system, be sure that the trees aren't on top of the leach field or
tank.

Now let's determine if the conditions in your yard will allow the kind of
orchard we're discussing. Check for each of the following:

Can you fit at least five trees without them encroaching on low wires,
sewer lines, or your neighbors view?

Is your soil somewhere between pure sand and pure clay?

Is your climate zone between 4 and 9?

Do you have a water source within 150 feet?

Will your orchard location receive at least five hours of direct sunlight
each day?

If the answer to any of these questions is "No," then the backyard
orchard probably isn't a good option for you. Don't despair, you can
probably still enjoy some fruit trees. Keep reading and take a
look at the "Options and Additions" section at the end for some ideas.

Laying out the orchard

The next step is to transfer the orchard plan from paper to the ground.
Get a handful of wooden stakes, a hammer and a ball of twine and head for the
yard. Using your scaled plan of the yard, find the center point of your
first tree, and pound in a stake to mark it. Now measure off a piece of
the twine that is five foot six inches long. Tie one end of the twine to
the stake and stretch the other out toward the next tree location. The circle marked by the end of the
twine as you walk around the stake shows approximately where the branches of
your full grown, dwarf variety, tree will be. Lay out each of the other trees in the same
manner based on your plan. Now use the strings to determine if there are any spacing problems. If the strings overlap each other, in any combinations,
you've got a problem and you need to move the stakes to resolve it. Once
you've adjusted all the stakes so none of your trees are crowding the others,
pound the stakes in firmly. They'll have to wait awhile for your trees to
arrive and you don't want to have to do this part over again.

We're going to design and build a simple drip irrigation system as a part of
your backyard orchard because it will eliminate the single biggest cause of
failure right from the start. It's also easy, fun and inexpensive, so why
not? To start, take your ball of twine to the faucet that you will use as
a water source for your orchard. Tie the string around the faucet then
follow the most reasonable path from the faucet to your orchard area, trailing
the string behind along the ground. Don't be too fussy over this, we are
just getting some rough measurements. Now, depending on the pattern of
your tree plantings, consider how best to run a water pipe to pass along the
base of each tree. If they are in rows, you'll probably want a pipe for
each row. If they are all in a line, one pipe will do. If they are
in a zig zag pattern, the flexible tubing we'll use can probably just follow the
zig zag from one tree to another. Once you've got a plan, use the stakes
and twine to lay it out on the ground. When you are finished, transfer the
irrigation pipe plan onto your orchard drawing. Make notes on the drawing
of any fittings like "Tees" or "Ells" that you'll need to
implement the layout.

Here's a sample plan that utilizes one main line "======" with
"T" fittings for each row of trees (+):

I'm hopeless at ASCII Art, but you probably get the idea. We'll refine
this later.

Once the irrigation system is laid out to your satisfaction, tally up the
fittings you'll need, then measure the total length of the twine you used.
This will tell us how much irrigation tubing we need and what fittings to order.

Ordering your trees

Now comes the fun part, picking out your trees. We're going to mail
orderbare root apple trees from Stark Brothers, because they are pretty
reliable, have a great selection and I've had excellent luck with them in the
past. The first step is to get a copy of the current Stark Brothers
catalog. You can request this over the web2, or call on
the phone. In either case your catalog will arrive in a few days.
The Stark Brothers catalog always makes me go a little dreamy eyed with it's
pictures of bursting over ripe fruit of all varieties begging to be picked from
the overburdened branches. A veritable cornucopia of delights that will
make you desperate to fit in one more tree somehow.

In fact the over abundance of choices represents a problem that I'm going to
solve for you by providing a basic order for the backyard orchard that you can
elaborate on depending on how much space you have available. I'm also going to provide a set of criteria for any additional trees you buy so they'll
fit in nicely.

So, here's a list of five apple trees that meet the criteria and will
produce apples throughout the summer and fall (in zone 5):

If you have room for more than five trees (lucky you!) you can double up on
any of the basic five trees or you may want to select some new varieties to
round out your orchard. If you follow these criteria for any of the extra trees
you buy they'll fit nicely.

Dwarf variety, because that's the type of tree we designed the
layout for.

Pre-pruned, because that greatly increases the chances of their
survival during the first year.

Once you've got your list together, go back into the Stark catalog one last time
and see if any of the special "Assortments" they are currently
offering help you out. If the trees you've selected fit into one of their
packages you can save some money. Speaking of money, as a ballpark
estimate, plan on about $30 per tree including shipping. Check the list,
double check the list, then sleep on it and review it one more time before you
place your order. Apple trees live over a hundred years, so take the time
to get it right. If you end up ordering any non-"Supreme" trees, ask
that they be pre-pruned, and include fertilizer tablets, a weed mat and a tree
guard for each of them.

Once you are absolutely sure, give Stark a call and lay your plastic
down. It's pretty painless if you consider that you are planting an
orchard that your great grandchildren will enjoy. Bare root trees are
normally shipped in early spring, so depending on when you order, you'll likely
have some time to get the rest of the items you'll need prior to their
arrival. In particular, this would be a great time to order the irrigation
supplies.

Ordering the drip irrigation supplies

The reasons for including a drip irrigation system in the backyard orchard
plan are almost too numerous to mention. A summary of the high points
would have to include:

The most common cause of failure in new tree plantings is improper
watering, either too much or too little. Our drip system will ensure
that the trees get just the right amount, automatically.

If you are interested in learning more about the history, theory and practice
of drip irrigation, please take a look at Jess Stryker's tutorials.3
Otherwise let's get down to business. There are
loads of vendors for drip system irrigation supplies. The polyethylene
tubing and fittings are pretty standard, so feel free to shop around if you
like. To keep things simple here, I'm going to reference The Drip Store3,
an online vendor that I've had great luck with in the past. Without explaining
too much, I'm just going to provide a basic list of stuff you'll need, then
we'll add the items for your particular orchard, based on your layout notes.
Finally, I'll introduce some options that you may be interested in.

Basic drip system component list

Backflow preventer, required in most places to eliminate irrigation
water polluting the drinking water supply

Two optional items you may be interested in, but which can be added later if
you choose are:

Automatic watering controller & electric valves. These cool
gizmos
allows you to set up very complex watering schedules with multiple
zones. They replace the simple hose timer above. There are loads
of options, so if you're interested, do the research.

Automatic fertilizer applicator. This system consists of a small
tank with connections that allow it to feed small measured amounts of fertilizer into your drip system every time you water. You
don't have to feed your trees very often anyway, but the system is useful
for other gardening projects too.

Planting your trees

One exciting day in early spring, you'll come home to find several long cardboard
boxes on your front porch, your bare roottrees have arrived! The trees
will be wrapped in plastic inside, probably several to a box. Open them up
to take a look, and moisten the roots a bit before closing them up again.
If you aren't going to plant them immediately, store them in a cool dark place
such as your garage or unheated basement. If it's going to be more than 10 days before you
plant, you should "heel in" the trees by digging a shallow sloping
trench long enough to cover the roots. Lay the trees in horizontally then
cover up the roots with dirt and soak the trench. The tree shipment will
also include packages containing, weed mats, fertilizer tablets and tree
guards. We'll use this stuff when we plant, so keep it handy.

Before you start digging, you'll need a two cubic foot bag of compost for
each tree (from the local gardening store), a two-handled post hole digger
(from the local tool rental place) and a regular spade shovel. Digging holes for trees can be pretty exhausting,
especially if your soil is
really compacted, so don't be embarrassed to hire a helper if you need
one. Before you start digging, start soaking the roots of the trees in a
bucket of water.

To prepare the holes for planting your trees, first make a planting jig by
tying three loops in a four foot length of twine or rope, one loop on either end, and
one in the center. Hook the center loop over the stake marking where
your tree should go, then stretch the twine out tight and pound a stake in the
ground through each of the other two loops.

It should look like this:

O--------------O--------------O

Now you can remove the center
stake and unhook the twine while still keeping track of where to dig the hole. You can remove the
planting jig string as needed when you dig the hole, then just
hook it back over the outside stakes to make sure you are on target. I
know this sounds fussy, but in the sound and fury of hole digging, it's easy to
drift way off the mark. You are going to have to live with this for a long
time, so try to be accurate.

In addition to the old saying, "Dig a ten
dollar hole to plant a five dollar tree, " an arborist friend once taught
me a tree planting trick that makes sense so I'll pass along here. First dig a two foot
diameter hole one foot deep centered around the center loop in your planting jig.
Then take the post hole digger and dig a 6" to 8" diameter hole straight down
at least another two feet. The first hole frees up the soil to allow air
and water to penetrate the area around the tree's roots. The second,
deeper hole encourages the tree to send it's roots down deep through the loose
soil. This allows the tree to tap into the water table quicker and more
readily withstand strong winds or heavy snowfall.

When the hole is ready, get the compost, put your gloves on and have a garden spade handy. Place the tree's roots down in the deeper hole and then
begin to fill in around it using the compost. As the hole fills, pull the
tree up through it, so the roots are straightened out below then gently
compact the soil so there are no air gaps or voids. Keep filling
and pulling until the smaller hole is filled, compacting lightly as you
go. Now start mixing the compost half and half with the dirt you
originally removed from the hole. When the hole is two thirds full, place
the three slow-release fertilizer tablets that came with your trees among the roots. Keep filling and
pulling until you've filled the larger hole and are now back at ground
level. Be careful not to allow any air gaps or voids in the
hole.

Now comes the critical part. It's very important to plant your trees at
the correct depth. Your dwarf trees are created by grafting a fruiting
variety tree to a dwarf variety root stock. This is how we get full sized
fruit from a
small dwarf tree. The place where the two tree types are joined, together
is called the bud graft, and it's usually visible as a knob or knuckle six
to eight inches above the first roots. The trees need to be planted so that the
bud graft is at
least an inch or two above ground. If they are planted too deep, roots can
develop from above the graft and you'll end up with a full sized tree. All
the Stark Supreme trees are marked with tape to show the proper planting
depth. If you purchase any trees that aren't marked, use the Supreme tree
marks to
show you how far above ground the bud graft line should go.

Once you've identified the correct planting depth, mound up the soil mix
about three inches above grade, and pull the tree up one more time until the
proper planting depth is at the top of the mound. Now press the mound down
to compress the dirt below it. Gently at first, then using your feet to
make it nice and tight. When you are done, the dirt should be tamped down nicely
and the tree trunk should be sitting at the proper depth. Use the excess
dirt to form a circular rim around your tree to hold the water.

Place the weed barrier mat around the base of the tree, then put the tree
guard around the trunk. Finally, take the plastic name tag off from around
the tree's trunk. If you want to use it to mark the tree, reattach it
using a soft & loose piece of twine. Now, pat yourself on the back,
take a long pull on a cold beer and start the next one. While you are
doing the next tree, set a hose running slowly to deeply soak the previous tree. After they
are all done, open another cerveza fria and have a nice long well-deserved
relaxing soak in the Furo.

Installing the drip irrigation system

Once the trees are in the ground and the heavy digging is finished, you can
lay out the tubing for the drip irrigation system. This part is easier than it
sounds and will go surprisingly fast. Here are the basic steps, YMMV:

Connect a drip tubing adaptor to the end of the polyethylene tubing by
pushing it onto the fitting at least a half inch. This takes a little strength, so get a friend
with gorilla hands if necessary. Now screw the adaptor onto the filter
so the entire roll of tubing is connected to the faucet through filter,
backflow etc.

Unroll the tubing out to your orchard along the path you laid out in your
irrigation system plan. Be careful not to pull too hard on the
backflow assembly. These bits are pretty tough, but they are plastic
after all.

Once you've rolled the tubing out to the farthest end of the orchard, cut
it to length, leaving a few feet of slack.

Use the "Tee" and "Ell" fittings you purchased to lay
out the rest of the lines. Cap each line at the end. When you are
finished, each tree should have one poly tubing line passing by its trunk.

Using the tubing hole punch, make a hole in the poly tubing at the trunk of each
tree and push the barbed fitting of an emitter into the hole until it clicks
into place. For now, we'll only use one emitter per tree, but as they
get bigger, we have room to install two more, 18 inches out from the trunk
for a total of three per tree.

Once everything is in place, turn the water on, turn the timer on and
cross your fingers.

Fix leaks & retest.

Once you've got it all set up and fixed any problems, you can just set the watering timer to put about five gallons on each tree once a week. At
a gallon per hour, that's five hours of watering every week. Depending on
the timer you bought, you may set it up for five hours on Wednesday, or 45
minutes a day. If it rains all week and the trees don't need any extra
irrigation, shut off the faucet.

Now you can just kick back and watch those beautiful trees grow.
Patience is a virtue here. The roots of your trees will begin to develop
almost immediately, but you may not see any visible budding or leaves for three
to six weeks. If you are
lucky, you might even get an apple or two the first year. The second
year you'll almost surely see a small crop. Year three and beyond watch out.

If any of your trees fails to grow, don't panic, it happens. All the
reputable tree farms guarantee their stock and Stark Brothers is no
exception. Call them and they'll send you a replacement for fall
planting. No questions asked. Replanting in the same hole is easy, so the
only real down side is that you'll lose one growing season.

Maintaining your orchard

The primary tasks involved in maintaining your orchard are pruning, pests,
and pickin. I've adopted a pretty casual approach to all three, that I'll
share with you here. As an orchardist however, it is incumbent on you to
spend lots of pleasurable hours fussing over each of these topics in the
development of your own ornery, well honed, idiosyncratic ideas that you feel
compelled to argue interminably with other orneryidiosyncratic orchardists.
It comes with the territory.

Webster says of pruning, "The act of trimming, or removing what is
superfluous," and in some senses that captures what pruning is all
about. In a more philosophical sense, pruning is all about recognizing the
soul of the tree and helping it become what it needs to be. Think bonsai writ
large and you'll be close. Good pruning recognizes that the tree is a
living creature and strives to realize the essential character of each
tree. Your trees need you to help them grow properly by removing the
random and inessential elements so the true form can emerge. If this
sounds a little like parenting, that's because it is.

Okay enough cosmic babble, here are the basics you'll need to get started:

When to prune, there's an old saying that sums it up this way,
"the best time to prune is when the knife is sharp." Take
your pruning shears with you every time you go into the orchard.
You'll always see something that needs pruning. My pruning guru DejaMorgana
adds the following tips: " I recommend doing most of the heavy
pruning in late winter-early spring, when the tree is dormant. This will
really boost the growth of new branches. Finally, I suggest thinning the
apple clusters when the apples are very small - apple trees have a natural
tendency to produce too much fruit for their own good. If you let all the
apples grow, it can overload the branches and cause bruising by apples
dragging on the ground."

How to prune, make a sloping cut just above a bud, or flush with
the trunk..

What to prune, apple trees should be pruned around a central leader
trunk. If there are two leaders, choose one and whack the other. Next
resolve branching conflicts where two branches are growing towards each
other, choose one and whack the other. Finally, select the strongest lateral
limbs and remove the redundant ones. When you look down from the top
of the tree, the branches should radiate evenly around the central leader.

Cut any sucker shoots that grow up from the roots, or out from the
bottom 12 inches of the trunk.

Branches that point in the same direction should be four to eight
inches apart vertically.

Some dwarf trees don't develop a strong leader trunk, that's okay,
just select 3 - 5 of the lateral branches to encourage. These
branches should radiate outward like a pinwheel, evenly spaced around
the tree.

It's better to prune frequently, making small, easily healed cuts
rather than waiting and making large cuts.

Prune to space branches at the same height so that they radiate around
the tree, about three or four per level.

Like I promised, those are the bare basics. After awhile, you just see
what needs to be done, really.

Pests and diseases

I'm going to be dogmatic on this topic and opine that you adopt a gentle
approach to the myriadmalevolent forces implacably aligned
against your helpless orchard. If you let them get to you, you'll wake up
one morning to find you've turned into a chemical warfare wielding
totalitarianfundamentalist. Not a pretty sight! You'll be a
happier orchardist if you accept from the outset that critters, from microbes to
mocking birds are going to want their share of your apples as much as you
do. Since you planted loads of trees, there will usually be enough to go
around even after everyone has had their fill.

The place where I draw the line is against anything that threatens the
overall health of the trees. This is tantamount to killing the golden
goose, and I terminate that kind of threat with extreme prejudice. That
said, there are almost always organic alternatives available nowadays that you
should at least try before resorting to the really nasty stuff. Last year,
for example, my orchard was viciously attacked by leaf boring caterpillars.
My hand instinctively reached for the "poisondeath spray," but
after taking a moment to chat with the arborist at the garden store, I found an
enzyme product that did a nice ethnic cleansing number on the bugs
then broke down harmlessly.

Birds on the other hand fall into the, "share and share
alike," category. Usually they only bother the fruit on the outside
of the tree, but if they get so greedy that you aren't getting your fair
share, you can throw bird nets over the top of your trees, or invest in one of
those cool Air-Softpistols for a local teenager. They shoot
these fat blue bb's that scare the shit out of birds without actually hurting
them, much.

Your backyard orchard will produce apples for about eight months of the
year. As one tree peters out, another will be just be ready to drop its
load. Around here, that means a series of great excuses for a pickin
party with friends, or even random pedestrians invited to pick all they can
carry.

You can tell if an apple is ready to be ripe by watching for it to lose the
last bit of green in its color. The sweetness will increase and the
seeds turn from white to brown. To pick apples properly, just lift upwards
sharply and the apple will pop loose without damaging the tree at all. If
you listen closely, they say you can hear the trees sigh with relief as the
heavy load lifts from their branches.

Another tip from the apple-wise DejaMorgana: "About picking - a few
words on this really should be said, to prevent people from damaging most of
their crop. You must emphasize spreading the fingers out around the whole apple
when picking, and not to dig in with any one finger. Also, it's better to twist
and pull than to lift sharply. Lifting is likely to bruise the fruit or
make the stem actually cut into the flesh of the apple, which is no good. It can
also shake the whole cluster of apples, resulting in a lot of dropped fruit. You
don't want that, unless you're making cider, so twist and pull. People
think this is stupid stuff, but i've seen a lot of fruit damaged by people who
thought you could pick just any old way."

Options & Additions to your orchard

Here are a few ideas you may want to consider as you plan your orchard:

Guaranteed that you won't be able to look at the Stark Brother's catalog
without thinking of adding other fruit trees to your orchard. Great
idea! Just keep the original five apple trees in the mix because they all
cross pollinate. My orchard now includes apples, cherries,
peach, plum, pear, nectarine and two almond trees. Fruit-O-Rama!

If you don't have enough room for the backyard orchard, consider growing a
few of the "Colonnade" type trees in barrels on your patio.
These are amazing hybrids that look like bushes but produce loads of full
sized fruit.

I'd love to hear from any new orchardists, and will gladly assist as best I
can with any questions or problems. Just /msg GrouchyOldMan